Tom Holland leak: third Spider-Man film pulls from Electric Company skit

In .a recent interview with Empire magazine, Tom Holland let slip the plot-line for the third Spider-Man film, while doing press for the current release Spider-Man: Far From Home. When asked if there were plans for a third film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe in the partnership with Sony, Tom initially tried to play coy, but in his usual “Tom Holland” fashion ended up accidentally droppping a hint by revealing the plot, showing the reporter a copy of the script and then explaining in excruciating detail precisely how Spider-Man will stop “The Birthday Bandit.”

That’s right, in a surprise move, Marvel is pulling the next iteration of the Spider-Man on film, not from the comic books, but from the 1970’s children’s television show, The Electric Company; specifically the episode where Spider-Man battles The Birthday Bandit. The show, which helped kids learn to read, often featured adventures of Spider-Man foiling sinister deeds like stopping a Yeti who was constantly sitting on people’s ice cream cones (with the help of none other than Morgan Freeman as a rogue cop whose grape soda gets squashed by the furry beast). As some have noted, several of these episodes involved our friendly neighborhood Spider-Man saving birthday parties, and it is from these themes that the next Spider-Man film will draw its plot.

After the leak, Kevin Feige exasperatedly took to Twitter to confirm: “Well, since the cat is out of the bag… YES… the next Spider-Man film will be based on an episode of The Electric Company and feature Mark Hamill as The Birthday Bandit.” In the Birthday Bandit episode, Spidey has to stop a dastardly villain who steals birthday parties.

Naturally, Marvel fans went ecstatic at the news. The film is expected to start shooting early 2020 and release Summer of 2021.